Understanding Mana (Reimi’s POV)

‘What none of us mentioned to John was the second quest window that hovered before the eyes of myself and my sisters,’ Reimi thought while remembering the contents of the sub quest from a few moments ago.

Sub quest: Hyper Ebola Mind Chamber
This window I made exclusively for you ladies, don’t tell John. If you do, the quest automatically fails. The quest is simple, use the ten hours allotted to train the Gamer to the best of your abilities. You can group up or divide the time, honestly. The reward depends on how much each of you aided in John’s growth. I will be fair and assess any factors like who went first if you divide the time. I won’t grant some lofty reward like presenting the target of your **** before you, or giving you the rarest material in the world. However, I can promise that you will enjoy the reward.
Reward will depend on how much fun I have and who I deemed helped John Newman progress the most. There will be three rewards, one for each of you from best to worst.

The pink haired technomancer shook her head remembering the names of the two quests. ‘I doubt either of my sisters gets the joke behind these quests names. Then again, I doubt any of them understand the significance of this barrier to nerds like John and myself,’ she mused to herself glancing over to the Gamer.

After the giant hour glasses flipped, John Newman walked to the pink haired woman. “Well, Reimi-sensei, I'm in your capable hands for the next three hours. What’s first?” he asked while taking a small bow with his hand clasped over fist like he’d seen people do in a few anime.

‘Damn it, Jasmine piqued my curiosity when she talked me into meeting him and I’m actually curious about him. Calm down, girl, it’s probably the doing of that nympho’s magic, though he does look adorkable. Shut up shut up shut up, it’s just the points he put into charisma. Gaia be damned, Reimi, calm down and focus on training him.’ The pink haired gamer took a deep breath to calm herself.

The technomancer chuckled audibly. “Stop being such a nerd. Sit down comfortably before me and take off your shirt,” she instructed, pointing right in front of herself, a hint of blush on her face.

“Sure, no problem, Reimi-sensei.” John joked again using the title before sitting down and stripping off his shirt. “Sorry, joking helps me when I’m nervous.”

Waving her hand the pink haired nerd sat behind John cross legged. “That’s fine, I get it. Though in my fantasies I’m the one saying sensei.” She whispered the second part so only the Gamer could hear.

This got her intended results as the Gamer started nervously fidgeting. ‘Oh my god, Reimi, are you actually flirting with this barely legal nerd, right in front of your sisters? This is definitely Jasmine’s doing. I can smell her smoke. She has no problem influencing all of us in this mana abundant barrier. Hmm, but if Sonia’s not stopping her, she’s either that oblivious or she also wants to play with the nerd. Fuck, I never expected my first time with a man might be an orgy with my sisters. Ok, Reimi, calm down, even if we do end up doing naughty things that will be after training him. Focus on the task at hand.’ All these thoughts went through the technomancers head quickly.

The pink haired woman gave a knowing look to her ebony skinned sister. “Ok, John, my sister said she gave you a breakdown of the basics of mana. Can you give me a quick explanation of what she told you, because I’m pretty sure she’s part of the ninety something percent that misinterprets this.” Reimi inquired as she placed her hand on the youth’s bare back.

“Well, what Jasmine told me was that our mana comes from within our soul and—”

The technomancer interrupted him, “Yea, I figured she made that misinterpretation. Since I’m sure both of you think this way, you should listen in while I train the boy,” Reimi called over to her sisters motioning for them to come closer. “All right, while I explain things, I want you to focus on the mana I’m spreading throughout your body. Do you feel this rotation I'm doing?” Her mana began flowing through his body nearly matching his heartbeat.

“Yes, I feel it. It feels as if it’s trying to flow through my body like blood,” the Gamer responded, his eyes closed so that he could have all his attention on the sensation of the mana.

The pink haired nerd nodded. “Good, good. All right, I’m going to slowly release my influence on my mana. While I do that, I want you to use your own mana to keep cycling my mana in this manner. It’ll feel kind of sluggish and you will slowly feel my mana seep out of you, which you will need to slowly replace with your own mana,” Reimi instructed. When she saw the Gamer give a gentle nod, she began loosening her influence on the mana flowing through the Gamer’s body. Since she was still helping him, she could already feel the resistance on the mana’s flow.

“Ok, while you do that just listen and I’ll explain how mana works. While normally this doesn’t matter much, I’m theorizing that with how your powers work understanding will have an influence on your skills. Even if I’m wrong, this extra knowledge can’t hurt you,” Reimi mused, while easing up a bit more control of her mana just as John got used to the flow.

Glancing at her sisters who had approached her, the pink haired woman began her explanation, “Ok, so what I’m doing right now is helping your body grow accustomed to using mana. Your skill Gamer’s Body is something I don’t completely comprehend, but I can tell from your body's mana pathways that you are a complete novice at mana. Most of us Abyssals naturally grow these vessels by constant use ever since we first learned how to use mana.”

Jasmine interjected suddenly, “None of that explains why you said I’m wrong about mana coming from our soul.”

Reimi glared at the ebony skinned nympho, and she eased her influence on the mana some more. “Did I sound done to you? Anyway, to your point, this misconception came to be because the rare few who could see people’s souls explained to others the consequences of using more mana than you were able to manipulate. The thing is even to this day besides some specialists and deities barely anyone is able to manipulate the soul. However, we are able to prevent people from using their mana even though we can’t influence their souls. Why do you think that is?” the technomancer quizzed her younger sister.

“I always figured we just kind of blocked off their souls,” the smoker responded with a shrug.

“Yea, and while being wrong about that doesn’t matter much in your everyday life, you are still wrong. The simplest way to disprove this is a barrier like this. If our mana comes from our soul, why would mana rich places like this matter to us, or places with barren mana be such a headache?” the technomancer asked, almost completely removing her influence on the mana in the Gamer’s body.

Both her sisters looked at her as if they noticed the obvious once she put forth that question. “Wait, if you’re right, why do our souls get damaged when we use more mana than we can?” Sonia decided to ask, now genuinely curious.

“That’s simple: because we use our soul to manipulate the mana in the environment. Take the training that I’m doing with Johnny boy here.”

The Gamer groaned. “Please don’t call me Johnny. I only let one person call me that and I get on her case about it all the time.”

“Noted,” the technomancer agreed, removing her hand from John's back and with it her influence on the mana flowing through his body. “Back to my point, the training that I’m having John do is helping his body become used to circulating mana. This will also help his soul become used to manipulating mana. If you notice, his blue bar representing MP hasn’t gone down too much, even though he’s moving a large amount of mana within his body.” Almost as if to prove her point, a notification appeared before John that all four of them present could see.

New Skill unlocked: Mana Vessels Lvl 1
Your body is becoming used to the flow of mana.
A passive skill that increases the user’s MP by 5%.

“Nice, I was hoping for something like this. Aren’t I a genius?” Reimi exclaimed, reveling in her own brilliance.

”Calm down, shorty,” Jasmine interrupted, giving her excited sister a flick on her forehead.

“Ow, watch it before I beat you up,” the technomancer responded, giving her sister a playful glare. “It’s not worth the time arguing. I’m also explaining this because given the nature of his powers, he may later develop the rare powers involving the soul. He seems to learn different skills at different rates. Like how you explained that he learned his Novice Dagger Proficiency skill after he had already killed quite a few goblins. I feel like understanding helps him with skill learning, especially with passives. I bet the reason he learned Cunnilingus so quickly is that he had already seen it done so much in porn, plus his own writing depicted some quite detailed views on providing oral sex to women.”

“Sheesh, is nothing private?” the Gamer groaned when he heard the technomancer talk about his writing.

“In the world of the Abyssals, anything on the mundane internet is pretty much free information. You don’t even need to be a technomancer to break through mundane cyber security. Heck, most Abyssals just use their phones to bypass mundane technology,” Sonia jovially responded to John’s question.

“Hahaha, if a muscle head like her can say that, imagine how easy it is for me?” the technomancer chimed in.

“Wait, but what about the government then?” John asked, obviously worried.

Reimi chuckled at his inquiry. “Most governments have ties to the Abyss. Whether or not they understand it depends on their own knowledge. Heck, even most banks and top corporations have ties to the Abyss. If they didn’t, they would lose out to their competition pretty easily.” At her statement the Gamer almost lost control of the mana flow, but luckily the pink haired nerd was ready and helped him stabilize it. “Be careful and focus on the task.”

“Sorry, but now I’m confused. Jasmine told me that the existence of the Abyss can’t be exposed to the mundane world. If what you said was true, wouldn’t there be no point in the restriction Gaia put in place?” John asked in bewilderment.

“Well, cutie, I said that because it’s true. Reimi just told you that they have ties, most of them aren’t aware of what the Abyss is. They assume it’s some secret society, cult, or even aliens. The ones who do understand are either Abyssals themselves or descendants of Abyssals. Plus the percentage of people who are in the Abyss has been growing. It's kind of like how most of the world thinks there are a little over eight billion people in this world. However, just counting humans, that number is between nine and ten billion, that’s not even counting the other intelligent species on earth. Heck, the goblins you killed were a subspecies, there is an entire culture around red goblins,” the ebony beauty explained.

“Wow, really? But how can so many people live in the world?” the Gamer inquired excitedly.

“Gosh, I see why my sister said you’re dumb sometimes. We’re sitting in one of the most obvious answers. There are barriers all over the world. Also, some creatures hide in plain sight using magic to mask themselves. Some species live deep in mountains and underground. This world is vast, John Newman. As long as you survive, your perception of reality will keep getting broken because even people like myself see new things,” Reimi said, giving the Gamer a pat on the back. “I’m looking at one such example right now. I’ve read about late bloomers, and unique Abyssals, but you’re an oddity.”

“Thanks, glad I could be interesting to a cute nerd like yourself,” John responded with some playful flirting as payback to her earlier comment that she whispered to him.

Her two sisters started laughing at his response because unknown to him the technomancer behind him was blushing a deep crimson.

“Shut up and focus on the task I gave you.” It was evident in her voice that she was clearly flustered.

‘Fuck, Reimi, how could you let someone who was a virgin just yesterday fluster you so much. Who am I kidding? I'm still a virgin, so that doesn’t matter. Why is he so alluring?’